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BBC 2008-03-03


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BBC News with John Jason.

In Russia's presidential election, Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin's chosen successor is heading towards an overwhelming victory of more than 65% of the vote. However, the main independent Russian observer group has questioned the results, saying turnout was impossibly high in some regions. Shortly after appearing side by side with Mr. Putin at a celebratory open-air concert in Moscow, Mr. Medvedev said his policy would be a direct continuation of his predecessor's. James Rodgers reports from Moscow. Www.Hxen.com

Mr. Medvedev confirmed that Mr. Putin would become Prime Minister. The real question is who will have what power. Mr. Medvedev insisted that he would be in charge of foreign policy but said that the two would work together to form a cabinet. To their supporters, it is the perfect outcome. Not everyone is ready to accept the result. Political opponents of the current administration say the election was riddled with irregularities. A Kremlin spokesman has dismissed their claims, saying that to make such general accusations was completely unfair.

The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered tank battalions and thousands of troops to his country's border with Colombia, in response to the killing by Colombian troops of a left-wing rebel leader on Ecuadorian territory. Mr. Chavez denounced the killing of Raul Reyes who was the second-in-command of the guerrilla group FARC as a cowardly murder. He warned his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe he would deploy war planes if Colombian troops went into Venezuelan territory. James Ingham reports from Caracas.

President Chavez is sending a clear message to his neighbor, responding to the Colombian military attack inside Ecuador. He warned if you think of coming into our territory, it would be a cause for war. Mr. Chavez who respects the FARC's aims has accused Mr. Uribe of the cowardly assassination of a good revolutionary. But the Colombian government which has promised to eradicate the FARC through force has described the death of such a prominent member as their strongest blow yet.

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has formally suspended contacts with Israel in protest at its military action in Gaza. Palestinian medical sources said at least 100 Palestinians had been killed since Wednesday. Israel says it is trying to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets into its territory. But its actions have been widely criticized, as Caroline Darphia reports. www.hXen.com

At President Bush's ranch in Texas the statement came, the violence needs to stop, and the talks need to resume. The European Union criticized what it called Israel's disproportional use of force. Russia's ambassador to the UN said he was deeply concerned about the loss of civilian lives. Turkey, one of Israel's few Muslim allies echoed that. The Turkish Prime Minister went on television to say there is no humane or legal justification for the attacks on Gaza.

World News from the BBC.

On the first-ever visit to Iraq by an Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused the United States of bringing terrorism to the region, and asked for Washington to change its standpoint towards Iran. He also said the US had to understand that the Iraqi people did not like America.

European diplomats are trying to calm political turmoil in Armenia where lethal force has been used against opposition protestors. Eight people were killed on Saturday in clashes between police and demonstrators, who’ve accused the government of rigging last month's presidential election. The opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian has vowed to keep up his campaign until Armenia's criminal regime, as he put it, is ousted. From Yerevan, Matthew Collin reports.

Mr. Ter-Petrosian told reporters he wasn't afraid of threats or prison, but he insisted he would act within the law. The opposition leader expressed reGREt for the eight deaths on Saturday, after armed police moved in to disperse protestors who’d occupied a square in the capital in defiance of the authorities. He described the violence as a slaughter which he blamed on government. The authorities said they had to act to restore order after more than a week of unsanctioned mass demonstrations.

The NATO Secretary-General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer says he is worried about repercussions for NATO troops in Afghanistan of plans to broadcast a film by a Dutch politician criticizing Islam. His comments came after hundreds of Afghans took to the streets in Mazar-i-Sharif to protest against the film.

The authorities in Southern Sudan say about 60 armed Arab nomads have been killed in clashes on the border between the north and south of the country. A senior official from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement told the BBC 75 Misseriya tribesmen were wounded in the fighting with troops from Southern Sudan. He said the governing National ConGREss Party which shares power with SPLM was backing the Misseriya.(ww.hxen.com)

BBC news.